basketball hero

Chapter 626 The Winning Streak Topic Continues
On January 1, the Raptors were a guest at the North Shore Garden Arena in Boston to challenge the Celtics away.This game was a playoff-level defensive battle. In the end, the stronger Raptors retreated in the away game.

In this game, the star of the Raptors, Ying Xiong, scored 32 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block, helping the team beat the opponent away and won a difficult victory.

With the victory in this game, the Raptors ushered in a 10-game winning streak, and their record also came to 23 wins and 14 losses, ranking firmly in the top 4 seats in the Eastern Conference.This is their first double-digit winning streak this season, and from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to the top four, if this kind of improvement does not happen to them, for the average team, it can blow for a whole season.

On January 1, the Raptors returned home to face the Western Conference Minnesota Timberwolves.

The current record of the Timberwolves is 18 wins and 20 losses, ranking 8th in the West, and is one of the contenders for the playoff tickets.They are also a little embarrassed at the moment. If they don't make it to the playoffs, this position will not be high in the draft, and it belongs to the position with the lowest "cost-effectiveness".

But sometimes the team is also very helpless. If there is a chance to enter the playoffs, they are generally not willing to give up and play poorly.Poor performance is a rookie who can get a high pick, but as a team that already has a lot of young potential stocks, frequent losses will make the potential stocks in the team develop bad habits and make them lose part of their sense of competition. It also broke the hearts of fans.

The Raptors have won 10 consecutive victories, and the topic of "who can end their winning streak" has begun to be hyped again.They have been the subject of media hype many times last season, creating a lot of topics and creating a lot of traffic.As the defending champion, as one of the most concerned teams in the league, it is normal to passively become a topic maker.

In this game, the starting lineup of the Raptors at home is the same as the previous game.Casey's starting lineup has basically not been changed since the beginning of the season.Even during the losing streak, he didn't take the starting lineup.He didn't think the problem was with the starting lineup, so naturally there was no need to move.

The Timberwolves' starting lineup for the away game is: Center - Nikola Pekovic, Power Forward - Kevin Love, Small Forward - Corey Brewer, Shooting Guard - Kevin Martin, Point Guard —Ricky Rubio.

It was Van Gundy Jr. and Steve Kerr who explained the game.

Two European centers, Valanciunas and Pekovic, are preparing to jump the ball near the center circle, and the game is about to start.With the increasing internationalization of the NBA, more and more outstanding foreign players have stepped into this field to compete with the talents of the United States.The starting lineups of the two teams each have two foreign players, which is no longer a patent of the Kings or Mavericks in the current NBA, and has become commonplace.

Valanciunas's bounce and flexibility are still better than that of the big white bear Pekovic. He passed the ball to Yingxiong, and the game officially started.

Jeremy Lin slowly dribbled the ball across half court and organized an attack at the top of the arc.

It was Corey Brewer who defended Yingxiong.

Brewer is close to 206cm tall, but weighs less than 90kg... With such a weight, he is destined to be thin and weak, and strength is naturally not his strong point.Of course, speed is his specialty, and fast break is what he is best at doing.

"If the defense responds, Curry's confrontation will suffer!" Van Gundy said.

"But if Corey isn't allowed to defend, who will Minnesota ask to counter it? Kevin? Rich?" Steve Kerr tilted his head and said in a helpless tone.

DeRozan responded to Xiong's pass and made a mid-range jumper-missed!
Love stuck in position, easily received the rebound, and quickly found Brewer who was running ahead with a pass—but was directly intercepted by Ying Xiong.

Ying Xiong came over with the ball, faced Rubio's defense, and took the initiative to pass the ball to Jeremy Lin in the corner. The latter raised his hand and made an open 3-pointer-hit!
The Raptors hit a 3-pointer at the beginning, which lifted the spirits of the fans on the scene.

"The ball responded very quickly, followed closely, and didn't let Kevin's four-point long pass find a loophole. It was a beautiful steal!" Steve Kerr said.

"What I appreciate the most is that he immediately counterattacked. When the frontcourt was more playful, he didn't choose to attack by himself, but passed the ball to the open teammates. His ability to capture opportunities is really strong!" Van Gundy also exclaimed.

On the Timberwolves side, Love hit Amir Johnson in the low post, turned around and hooked - missed!
Valanciunas took the rebound and handed it to Jeremy Lin to advance.

Jeremy Lin played a pick-and-roll in the frontcourt and distributed it to Valanciunas, who was running down, and the latter stormed Pekovic-missed!
Love received another backcourt rebound!
As a white power forward who is only 206cm tall and has no advantage in jumping or explosive power, Love can win the league's rebounding title in the 2010-2011 season and average more than double-digit rebounds per game all year round. The smell of rebounding.Of course, there is another important reason, which is that he basically does not block shots.

As we all know, in the NBA, the rebound data may be average if the block is good, such as Hibbert; while the rebound is good, the block data is bleak, such as Love.There are very few players who take both into account, and they are basically top defensive inside players, such as Duncan and Big Ben.

Love's defense is not very good, but his rebounding is really good.

"Golden Boy" Ruby's Olympic ball came over and organized an attack at the top of the arc.

Rubio shined in the BJ Olympics in 08. His handsome appearance and miraculous passing ability were hailed as the hope of Spanish basketball. But 6 years have passed, and now he has gradually become a passerby.His problem has not been resolved, is shooting.As a No. 1 position, his NBA career has never exceeded 3% in terms of shooting percentage or 40-point shooting percentage. It is too difficult for such a player to become a superstar.The most disappointing thing is that his shooting progress is very slow, which makes people see no hope.

Jeremy Lin's defense against Rubio is to give one step. It is to prevent your breakthrough. Once the opponent picks and rolls, he will go around behind the screener and give you a chance to shoot, but he just does not give you an easy breakthrough.

Rubio is also a top iron, you let me vote, I just don’t vote...

"Jeremy is sure that Ricky missed the shot, hey, Steve, you go and enlighten Ricky, it's too bad for not shooting!" Van Gundy said.

Steve Kerr smiled and didn't respond.

Love is a big man with 3-point shooting ability, but inconsistent.He picks and rolls with Rubio on the outside. After receiving the opponent's ball, he feints a shot and flies Amir Johnson.

(End of this chapter)